LOADED QUESTION – Question that rests on one or more unwarranted or unjustified assumptions

RHETORICAL DEVICE – Influence attitudes or beliefs through association – adds to persuasive but not logical

DOWNPLAYER – Diminish importance of claim

PROOF SURROGATE – Expression in place of actual evidence or authority

HORSE LAUGH – Ridicule disguised as reasoning to reject claim

RHETORIC – Persuade rather than prove logically

STEREOTYPE – Oversimplified generalization about a person of a certain class

HYPERBOLE – Extravagant Overstatement

WEASELER – Expression used to protect claim from criticism by weakening it

COMMON FALLACIES:

AD HOMINEM – Argument against claim based on who made the claim instead of against the actual claim (cannot resist pointing out that The Tea Party people are attacked this way, with Ad Hominem arguments on the six o’clock news – by other political parties calling us names we would normally attribute to far left, and not debating the issues)